New neuroscience research shows that when people try to persuade, their brains sync less and cover fewer ideas. But when they enter a discussion to learn or compromise, their brains diverge in ways that foster creativity, understanding, & shared solutions. www.scientificamerican.com/article/good...

"...it is important to situate astrology not only in the realm of 'supernatural' and 'paranormal' belief but also in broader trends toward personality 'tests' and categories...that seek to enhance people’s understanding of themselves and their place in the world." 🌞🌝📋 doi.org/10.1177/2329...

Important work on affective climate polarization: authors find "emotional distance" on decarbonization "...supporters’ frustration at opponents’ resistance to endorsing policy to mitigate climate change, and opponents’ frustration at being morally judged" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

One man's stigma is another man's professional asset? In "Listing Addiction on Your Resume," @elenavanstee.bsky.social covers recent work from Joe Silcox and @evanstewart.bsky.social on personal experience and the emerging field of recovery coaching contexts.org/articles/lis... #sociology #sobriety

"highly transferable skills—relevant not only to academia or nonprofit work, but to ... finance, marketing, business, and more. And yet, when students express interest in these broader arenas, they’re often met with hesitation, if not outright silence, from faculty." 👏👏👏 contexts.org/blog/dream-b...

New publication! 🚨 How do church leaders foster commitment + preserve organizational vitality in the face of crisis? "There Wasn't A Playbook For This: Local Congregations and the Crises of 2020," out today in Sociology of Religion, offers insight from MN academic.oup.com/socrel/advan...

This is true for students too. Yes there are many factors impacting student reading, but working 30+ hours a week to be able to afford college is definitely one of them.

Excited for this to be out at PS -- discussion of our DPR program at @denisonuniversity.bsky.social that frontloads quant methods. @mdwilliamsphd.bsky.social and I also present survey evidence that the idea is popular among political scientists.

new pub alert! 🚨

Very much looking forward to this next month. We have a great program put together for the conference! #SSSR_RRA2025

Depolarization is not "a scalable solution for reducing societal-level conflict.... achieving lasting depolarization will likely require....moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

"What I take from Aaron is that the best way to be truly productive on the margin, is to try to build for other people and connect them together."

How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go! 400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!

We got the all clear a few minutes ago. Thankful that things seem ok now.

Monitoring this, quite worried given everything. I’m ok - not on campus today - working on checking in with folks.

Our special issue of Sociological Focus on Religion and Politics in American Congregations is now published and all articles are open access (at least for now). This is the highest concentration of such work ever published together and it's very good. I put the details and links in a blogpost.

New article on how international religious freedom actors misinterpret data on religion-based violations, claim that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide, and leverage the perceived objectivity of numbers to claim ideological neutrality. academic.oup.com/socrel/advan...

Do streaming platforms trap us in cultural filter bubbles? We like to think so but the evidence says otherwise. In a new paper @abelaussant.bsky.social and I find the use of streaming platform to be associated with an increase in consumption diversity. sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

When I got my first academic job, hundreds of miles from where I grew up, my family asked why I couldn't just teach at a college nearby. I explained: Those schools only need a few sociologists. Kind of like K-12 districts only need a few music teachers... 1/

Get him, Professor Cook www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Catching up on peer reviews today. If you don't like my comments, blame Reviewer 2.5.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but in North America the university semester is starting ... This table of different types of classes has been useful for me in explaining to students* the structure of the class that I'm teaching * and to myself ... see next post drive.google.com/file/d/1-hKG...

ChatGPT and other LLMs aren't about to produce superintelligence, but if this is it, it's still changed the world. Not necessarily for the better. I did a big picture look at AI, comparing it to search and social media, On business, politics, education, misinfo, ability to grasp reality, and more.

“Schooling has been on a steady march of alienating students.” That’s it. That’s the whole thing. By the time students get to my classes, I’m trying at the very least not to make it worse and - at best - to provide a bit of a salve.

Good to see growing support for abduction or 'inference to the best explanation', recently by Spirling and Stewart in @thejop.bsky.social. This is... www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

New study in Nature Communications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62452-z): "3 stages of religious decline around the world." We find a secular transition begins at different times in different places. Over generations, drops in religious: 1. Participation 2. Importance 3. Belonging

There is real practical purchase here. I spend tons of energy convincing students to collaborate with each other.

New Guest Post! "Sociology gives us a framework to see that this is not just bad housing structure. It is a structural problem. When the employer controls housing, every complaint becomes a risk." thesocietypages.org/socimages/20...

Tomorrow #ASA2025 / ASR2025: Let's talk tarot. Come out to see @cmarsinelli.bsky.social & me with new findings on what practitioners say & what audiences reward with attention when we study spiritual practice online, at scale. Session 50668 - Religion & the Therapeutic at Noon!

Grateful to present my research on #civility & #bridgebuilding this morning at the Political Engagement paper session of @asapolisoc.bsky.social #asa2025 The paper is out now with Philosophy and Society available in full here: doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0353...

Fantastic panel on religion & politics at #ASA2025. New findings pushing the field forward: - how political activism brings some people back to religion - how people use similar cultural schema to talk about spirituality & politics - racialized patterns in Christian nationalism & patriotism

Terrific @asapolisoc.bsky.social panel on Political Engagement at #asa2025 this am. Overall takeaway, conventional understandings of engagement are far too restricted to voting. E.g. Case's research says egalitarian and redistributive ballot initiatives are hugely popular, esp. in red states.

Now out in Social Networks Network analysis aspires to be “anticategorical,” yet its basic units—relationships—are usually readily categorized ('friendship,' 'love'). Thus, a nontrivial cultural typification is asserted in the very building blocks of most network analyses. doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

OH BABY! Today's the day. Check out my band's debut single and video 'Mitt' out everywhere now (i.e. Spotify, Apple, etc.). Our album drops 9/3. There are 300 vinyl records in stock. So if you want one, I'd pre-order (see comments for link). www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Ty...

I’m delighted to share that the August 2025 special issue of Sociological Methods & Research on Generative AI is out now. Along with my co-editor, Daniel Karell, we put together this issue to build on the conference we organized last year. Here's a thread on each of the ten papers:

**I'll be at ASA if you'd like to chat about the position. Reach out by email.** The Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston is hiring a TT assistant professor with strengths in the soc of gender/sexualities: careercenter.asanet.org/job/1310899/...

Over the last 30 years, people a) walk faster in urban spaces; and b) linger less often according to an AI-Assisted study of video footage in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Through experiments and simulations, this study shows how individuals learn to learn from others, dynamically shaping the processes involved in cultural evolution. @davidschultner.bsky.social @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social @lucasmolleman.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nothing wrong with getting tenure and pivoting to something else that supports your department, but also this is 100% why I’m a fan of building labs/other collaborative systems in sociology. We of all disciplines should know about social structure!

💼 Well-connected, underpaid? Dr. @jessistreib.bsky.social’s #Socius study explores how class-privileged students face #LaborMarket uncertainty—challenging assumptions in #SociologyOfEducation about #SocialCapital and economic reward. Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...

In addition to the original UK results, we have now ***replicated*** this (TWICE) in the US. The main findings hold strong: information diets are a lot more diverse in attention than in engagement. New version here: osf.io/preprints/os...

We are HIRING @umbsociology.bsky.social! Gender, sexuality, theory. I'm not on the hiring committee (sabbatical 😈), but feel free to DM or say hi at ASA if you have questions. #socsky employmentopportunities.umb.edu/boston/en-us...

#Catholic priests discuss #immigration with their congregations more than leaders of most other faiths, according to new research. By @evanstewart.bsky.social and Diane Beckman @umassboston.bsky.social: theconversation.com/catholic-cle...

Wow, I genuinely would not expect this finding. Cool new work!

In an age of religious/political polarization, we see a lot of partisan sorting. There may be two clear camps there, but research still needs to be careful not to *homogenize* people. American religion is high variance! Cool new work on this:

New study finds that politically diverse social networks, even casual acquaintances, reduce partisan hostility by exposing people to others with opposing views, correcting stereotypes, and fostering understanding. sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

Few Americans actively support the Trump admin's attacks on higher ed. But, our data show that many seem to have no problem with it. @stecula.bsky.social ‬and I discuss why Americans should *demand* that our elected officials stand up for higher ed. www.scientificamerican.com/article/atta...

How do religious beliefs shape gender attitudes? Research from @evanstewart.bsky.social, @pennye.bsky.social, and @jackdelehanty.bsky.social shows how public and private theology, tradition, and identity intersect in everyday gender politics doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spad012

Srefs are new to me and I’m going to be thinking about “srefs as cultural repertoires” for a while.